Cooking with Charlie Palmer

The chef/restaurateur shares a signature recipe and his secrets of successText by Megan O. Steintrager

C harlie Palmer invited Epicurious behind the scenes at his Dry Creek Kitchen at the Hotel Healdsburg in Northern Sonoma County and shared his recipe for a juicy duck breast with roasted peaches and walnut-parsley fried rice. Here are some tips for making this delicious and easy recipe in your own kitchen.

Love Your Locale

At Dry Creek Kitchen, chef Palmer utilizes all sorts of local ingredients, including California walnuts, fresh herbs and greens, vegetables grown a block away, seafood from the nearby coast, artisanal cheeses, Petaluma duck, and peaches from Dry Creek Peach & Produce. When it comes to great cooking, the "single most important thing is the ingredients," says the chef. But that doesn't mean you have to be in Northern Sonoma to make this recipe. Instead of trying to import every ingredient, go to your local farmers' market and purveyors for poultry and produce. If peaches are out of season where you live, experiment with other fruits. Your final dish might not taste exactly like Palmer's, but if you choose the freshest, best raw materials, it should be just as delicious.

A Simple yet Sizzling Recipe from Charlie Palmer

Don't be alarmed by the amount of fat on duck breasts. Simply score the skin with a sharp knife and render out the fat until the skin is crisp instead of flabby, as Palmer demonstrates in the accompanying video. "We always save duck fat because it's the greatest for sautéing anything," he says. Use it in the fried rice that goes with the duck and try it for cooking potatoes.

Stock Options

Don't have reduced duck stock lying around your kitchen to sauce the duck with, as Palmer does in the video? Neither do we. In fact, Palmer admits in his book Charlie Palmer's Casual Cooking: "I don't know any professional chefs who would spend their time off making a stock for home use. If they can't cart it home from the restaurant, they do the same thing most home cooks do—use commercially prepared broths." Fortunately this recipe is fantastic without the chefy flourish of a sauce. If you do want sauce, Palmer recommends using purchased stock or a demi-glace (see the recipe for specific suggestions). Or you can do as we Epicurious editors did, and pour a little of the soy-lime emulsion from the fried rice over the duck—in fact, we've been putting that sauce on just about everything lately.

Variations and Leftovers

As wonderful as the duck, rice, and peaches in this dish are together, each element can also stand alone—so get creative if you have leftovers or just want to consider something new. Some ideas: Try the rice as a side for rotisserie or roast chicken or chicken parts; cut up the leftover duck and put it in a salad; serve the roasted peaches for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some yogurt.

Perfect Pairings

Dry Creek Kitchen's local theme continues with wine—all of the restaurant's bottles come from Sonoma. Palmer suggests serving this duck dish with any "big, ripe, fruity" Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, such as the one from Rochioli Vineyards.